Daan Spijkers (right) and Emiel Boersma fought back from a set down to beat Ricardo Santos and Marcio Araujo at the FIVB Swatch World Championships Rome 2011 powered by smart.

Rome, Italy, June 15 – Daan Spijkers and Emiel Boersma provided one of the first major upsets at the FIVB Swatch World Championships Rome 2011 powered by smart, when they beat third seeds Marcio Araujo and Ricardo Santos on centre court.

The Dutch pair fought back from an opening set loss to beat the Brazilians 15-21, 21-19, 20-18 to put their loss in the opening match against Canada’s Christian Redmann and Ben Saxton behind them.

“I’m very pleased. It was a good game. It is really special to beat the silver medallists from 2008 and the Olympic gold from 2004. It is very special for me because I am still young.

“Yesterday we played Canada and I played horribly, but Emiel played fantastically although we lost. I knew if I could step up my game we would be alright.”

Next up for the 22nd seeds Spijkers and Boersma are the Swiss team of Philip Gabuthuler and Jan Schnider, who pushed Marcio and Ricardo to three sets on day two of competition.

A win would put them in a strong position to claim a place in the knock out rounds. “We have to win and we have to play good. It will be fun to watch probably. We have to play our best and then we will have a chance to win.”